Boys pelting with carlings

14 days before Easter · Northern England

No longer kept

In the North the fifth Sunday in Lent was called Care, Carle or Carling Sunday, and the proper food was grey peas soaked overnight and fried in butter. Doles of these carlings had once been made to the poor, but by Henderson’s day they were mainly a treat for children. Boys went about with their pockets full of peas, shooting and flicking them at one another.

Passion Sunday, the fifth in Lent, is called in the North Care, Carle, or Carling Sunday, the proper fare for that day being grey-peas steeped a night in water and then fried in butter.

From Henderson's Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, p. 80. Read the original

Get a copy: Amazon · Bookshop.org · AbeBooks

We may earn a small commission if you buy through these links.

Also on this day

Questions and comments